Friday, March 4, 2016

The Fessenheim plant “should be closed as soon as possible,” according to Berlin – Liberation

The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) considers that “There is no reason to close” now the Fessenheim (Haut-Rhin) “point of view of nuclear safety “ said Friday AFP Sophie Letournel, head of the Strasbourg division of ASN. “For us to ASN today from the standpoint of nuclear safety, there is no reason to close the Fessenheim plant,” she said . “Then there are energy policy decisions within the government and that can lead to different choices,” she said. “Fessenheim is well within the average of the appreciation that the French ASN on nuclear power – that is to say, it is generally satisfactory,” a-t- she continued. “We still have things to complain about, is our watchdog role.”

The French Fessenheim nuclear power plant, near to the border with Germany, is “too old” and “should be closed as soon as possible” , said earlier on Friday a spokesman of the German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks.

Barbara Hendricks has already in the past expressed this position in Fessenheim, the oldest of the french Central park, back in the news Friday about an incident that occurred in 2014. this incident there are two years at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant (eastern France), proved most important announced, one of the two reactors being “momentarily controllable” , say two media Friday German.

the incident, which resulted in “a series of failures and technical chaos” during which the reactor 1 “was momentarily more controllable “, occurred April 9, 2014, indicate on their sites journal Süddeutsche Zeitung and the local channel WDR. According to the two media, a water leak in the area of ​​the reactor 1 of the plant has entered a cabinet containing electrical systems and “turned off” one of the two security systems . The crisis decides to “cut reactor” introducing “boron [a substance for regulating the capacity of the plant, Ed] in the cooling system” reactor, explain the Süddeutsche and WDR

read also:. the very political calendar of the closure of Fessenheim

L the incident was classified at level 1 on the international nuclear Event scale (INES), with eight severity levels, listed from 0 to 7, the most serious level.

However, the boron use is a rare process, says the Süddeutsche Zeitung nuclear expert Manfred Mertins, who says he “aware of any reactor in Western Europe which had to be stopped with a boron addition.” “The result shows that the judgment (…) was not possible, to the point that other means should be implemented” , warns the former expert security of civilian nuclear supervisory authority in Germany, now retired, who speaks of a event “very serious”.

a few days after the nuclear safety agency (ASN), Constable of the French nuclear, wrote a letter to the management of the plant, without mentioning the boron job.

This letter contains “information that for about 3 minutes, the reactor temperature was out of control” , alarm Manfred Mertins, saying the team piloted the reactor virtually blind.

Set up in 1977, Fessenheim, is the oldest French nuclear power plants. The final judgment of its two reactors, claimed by the French anti-nuclear, is a campaign pledge of François Hollande.

In late February, on the basis of an alarming report, the German Greens also called “immediate closure” of the Cattenom plant (eastern France), saying it no longer met safety standards.